25 years later, Iowa's Field of Dreams stirs fans, controversy

9:09 AM,
Apr. 20, 2014

From the Movie Field of Dreams

Written by

Des Moines Register

Before a field was built, before anybody had the slightest inclination to come and have a catch, Sue Riedel spotted this picturesque farm.

Riedel's solo scouting trip in 1987 was a fateful moment for these 193 acres, which for the last quarter century have been home to the rural baseball diamond known as the Field of Dreams.

Riedel, 68, taught speech and theater for 38 years at Hempstead High School in Dubuque. But in 1987, she also was a local volunteer for the Iowa Film Office, a state government effort to lure Hollywood business to Iowa's prairie. She was deployed to crisscross the dusty gravel ...